Israel has for the first time set its own precondition for any return to negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, head of the Yisrael Beyteynu party, announced the Jewish State will not negotiate again with the PA unless it withdraws all 15 of its applications to international treaties, conventions and memberships in United Nations (UN) agencies and organizations.

“We will not agree to unilateral actions by the Palestinians without exacting a price from them for that behavior,” Liberman stated in an interview Tuesday morning on Voice of Israel government radio.

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While Israel favors negotiations, he said, he does not intend for Israel to be “a sucker.” The PA has incessantly set preconditions as a means of dragging security and other concessions out of Israel prior to entering any form of negotiations. As usual, the current round of talks saw Israel forced by the United States – whose arm was twisted by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas – to free dozens of terrorist prisoners in a new round of “good will gestures.”

Four groups of prisoners were to be freed in the deal intended to bring Abbas to the negotiating table and to keep him there, totaling 104 terrorists, including 20 Israeli Arab citizens who were not even technically under PA jurisdiction. To date 78 terrorists have already been freed.

However, this time Israel set a condition of its own: the prisoner release was to be linked to the progress made in the talks, and to the participation of Abbas at the table. But Abbas rarely showed, and had not been seen since November 2013. The talks had accomplished little of significance from the start. Nor did Abbas keep his word, following a pattern he showed during the last such round of negotiations in 2009-2010.

Meanwhile, the final prisoner group would have included the Israeli Arab terrorists, causing a fierce debate among politicians and citizens. Releasing them before the end of the talks, scheduled for April 29, would have left no reason for PA negotiators to come back the next day.

Israeli ministers and citizens balked and the tranche was blocked. Instead, Israel suggested extending the talks till the end of 2014 and offered to free the final group, as well as an additional 400 prisoners if the PA agreed. In response, an infuriated PA decided to go with a flurry of international applications instead, and also threatened to go to the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

Liberman directly blamed Abbas for sabotaging the talks, saying the PA chairman submitted the applications just as both sides were about to complete a deal for a prisoner release. The foreign minister added there is no way that Israel is willing to narrow down talks to the sole issue of borders, at the behest of the PA. The Jewish State is willing to negotiate all outstanding issues, but demands from the PA to exclude all core issues but one are not acceptable.

Hana Levi Julian is a Middle East news analyst with a degree in Mass Communication and Journalism from Southern Connecticut State University. A past columnist with The Jewish Press and senior editor at Arutz 7, Ms. Julian has written for Babble.com, Chabad.org and other media outlets, in addition to her years working in broadcast journalism.

23 COMMENTS

USA and UK are responsible and must pay for their mistake, they inserted an illegal state in the ME which is Israel making the ME unstable and full of terror and violence and it will keep so as long as ISRAEL exist, Palestine must be freed and occupation ended as a first step to create peace environment in the ME . USA and UK are responsible for all Israeli crimes as much as Israel is since they always support Israeli Aggressions.

Omar idiot Omar ,a) neither USA nor UK inserted ISRAEL into the middle east ,ISRAEL has always been there & will always be there , if you are capable of reading ,then read Al Qur’an ( I doubt you can) Mohammed himself states that ISRAEL Is for We Yahûd , Jews ! B) ISRAEL IS TOTALLY LEGAL ! The fraud ” palestinians” – syrian/ Iraqi invaders , squatters in ISRAEL are the illegal ones ! Either the ingrates make peace ,live in ISRAEL, and progress ,or the transJordanians can go home to Jordan ,or Syria , their origin ( I am sure they will feel ” at home in Syria). Look at Arab countries ! They are a worthless destruction ! Mass murder , starvation ,brutality ! It is you ragheads that are immoral & thus would be illegal !! لعنه الله لك الفاشیین خنزیر !!الشر !!! الموت للفاشیین !!! الموت لکم الخنزیر !!!

Israel is God Almighty’s land
Israel belongs to GOD given by GOD to the jews
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A PALESTINIAN PEOPLE! THEY HAVE NO RIGHTS TO THE HOMELAND OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE
JERUSALEM, CAPITAL ETERNELLE ET INDIVISIBLE

Excellent. The land is Israel. It belongs to G-d. He covenanted with the descendants of Israel to be its caretakers until the end of the earth. Arabs can cry and throw all the tantrums they wish but G-d will not change His mind. The covenant is forever.

Liberman directly blamed Abbas for sabotaging the talks, saying the PA chairman submitted the applications just as both sides were about to complete a deal for a prisoner release. The foreign minister added there is no way that Israel is willing to narrow down talks to the sole issue of borders, at the behest of the PA. The Jewish State is willing to negotiate all outstanding issues, but demands from the PA to exclude all core issues but one are not acceptable.